Will Koji Igarashi's Castlevania successor be revealed this Monday?
#1

EDIT 2: H A P P E N I N G

EDIT: Teaser site is launched. The full reveal looks to be happening May 11th.

As per the request of the thread where this information started to surface, it would appear to warrant a new thread. I will do my best to explain in depth what appears to be going on regarding this entire endeavour.

Back in September, during the Mighty No 9 event at PAX, the following image was circulated, implied to be a game from Koji Igarashi, who left Konami that past March. I will be posting both the front and the back of it, as the back plays a more recent role.

Not too long after that image surfaced, members of a Castlevania Facebook page deduced that the runes in the image weren't random scribbles, but encoded a message. The message implied that whatever this game was, it would be getting a KickStarter not too soon.

Unfortunately, a KickStarter did not appear to happen as Koji Igarashi announced in September that his dream game would be on hold. Seeing as this teased game did not get a KickStarter, it could be reasonably deduced that this project was the work of Koji Igarashi.

All seemed silent on the matter up until yesterday, and the timing for that is rather impeccable. If first started with the Twitter account Quarterwomann suddenly becoming active again, posting tweets that show a pentagram which also mentions 'Rune translations', while also mentioning the words 'gold' and 'lead' in such a way that seems deliberate; in the teaser image from PAX, the character of the game is apparently an alchemist, and would very easily use materials such as gold and lead in the art of alchemy.

The ride gets a little deeper as on two different Castlevania fan forums - The Castlevania Dungeon and the Chapel of Resonance - got posts from a user by the name of IGAVANIA, who also teased the earlier game. Each site was given half of an image, and both posts had the following message:

The first sign rises with the full moon.
Soon, I will return.

The image combined below shows the pentagram from the PAX image, complete with a whip, synonymous with Castlevania. The following is the combination of the two images.

All of this can be amounted to coincidence, but I personally doubt it. May 1st is an important day for the Castlevania franchise, for the original game released in North America on May 1st, 1987. The timing also seems deliberate a little further, as the quote about the full moon may actually reference the real world: the next full moon is on May 4th, by the UTC timezone. If the message was about a reveal, and all of this pans out, that would fall on this Monday.

Either all of this is a considerable ruse ala Rayman in Smash 4, or we could finally be witnessing the reveal of Koji Igarashi's Castlevania successor. And I think the story would be fitting if true; like the Dark Lord Dracula and his castle, here we are, witnessing the revival and return of something once thought defeated and dead.

EDIT: Apparently the IGAVANIA and Quarterwomann accounts use the same email address, and seeing as Quarterwomann is linked to the PAX reveal, all of these teases are legitimate. Something is happening.

No other game has been able to sate my need for a proper metroidvania since Ecclesia. I'll be putting in as much as I'm able into this kickstarter.

I miss you so much IGA.

You don't know what you miss till it's gone, you know? I was getting a little tired of his annual work, but now that we've been at least five years since a full fledged Igarashi game - his last traditional Castlevanias were Order of Ecclesia and Adventure Rebirth - that void is obvious to me.

Especially considering what took its place in the Castlevania franchise.

Is there any significance, do you think, to this campaign being in English? Correlating with the American release date? Revealed originally at an American convention? With English speaking personalities in-the-know?

Is there any significance, do you think, to this campaign being in English? Correlating with the American release date? Revealed originally at an American convention? With English speaking personalities in-the-know?

Does this imply anything?

Yeah, I've found that really weird myself.

Also, I'm not sure I really really need another straight up metroidvania from him, but just seeing Iga work on a project that doesn't reuse the same sprites seems pretty great to me!

Is there any significance, do you think, to this campaign being in English? Correlating with the American release date? Revealed originally at an American convention? With English speaking personalities in-the-know?

Does this imply anything?

It heavily implies the involvement of 8-4, ex-pat JP localisation company, pals of IGA and KS coordinator for Mighty No.9.

Is there any significance, do you think, to this campaign being in English? Correlating with the American release date? Revealed originally at an American convention? With English speaking personalities in-the-know?

Does this imply anything?

Castlevania has been a series Konami has kept making games for specifically because they sell the most in North America. The series was practically dead in Japan when Igarashi took over, for he tried many tactics to create an audience in Japan for it, and all kind of failed. You know the series is in trouble in Japan when they literally try to call the franchise Castlevania in Japan, where it's called Demon Castle Dracula. You had scenarios where a game in the series could sell 200,000 here and sell maybe 20,000 there. A world of difference.

Then there's the fact that at the PAX event, it was run by 8-4, who localized the last batch of Castlevania games from Igarashi. And many people there are hardcore fans of his work, particularly the ones who were also part of 1Up.

Is there any significance, do you think, to this campaign being in English? Correlating with the American release date? Revealed originally at an American convention? With English speaking personalities in-the-know?

Does this imply anything?

Most of their audience is overseas, they need an English campaign to have a successful Kickstarter.

If this is a KS, you don't have to pay anything until the campaign is over, you are safe for 1 month at least.

Excited about this, I always was very critical of IGA but is the right time to play one of his games again.

Same, but as I said in the prior topic, I think perhaps one of the best things about this possibility is that this may be the first time IGA (and whatever crew he's got) will get to work on a game that would be free of a) Konami's influence and b) Castlevania, itself.

Being free of both of those constraints should allow them to make the game they want to make, without having to be guaranteed that it fits within some 100 year resurrection cycle (that may or may not be a strict rule) or even have to involve Dracula himself in any shape or fashion.

Same, but as I said in the prior topic, I think perhaps one of the best things about this possibility is that this may be the first time IGA (and whatever crew he's got) will get to work on a game that would be free of a) Konami's influence and b) Castlevania, itself.

Being free of both of those constraints should allow them to make the game they want to make, without having to be guaranteed that it fits within some 100 year resurrection cycle (that may or may not be a strict rule) or even have to involve Dracula himself in any shape or fashion.

I'll try and be a Castlevania lore philosopher for a moment; I believe in the original canon, it was all but assured Dracula would return 100 years after his last death if he was not reawakened earlier, and anytime he would be, a human sacrifice would be needed. All of that is fine, but IGA kind of locked himself into a hole when he basically had to work between the years 1476 and 1999 for Dracula to be around. He was more screwed because he inferred a sure beginning and end, and while he had a few areas he could do something with - 1897 and 1999 in particular - he pinned the baddie down too much. He also considered on making a threat for the gaps of Dracula, primarily between the years of 1094 and 1476, but by and large he doomed himself to a small timetable of actual Dracula battles. He would have been left between events pre-Dracula, the few missing events to justify a fight with Dracula, and then dealing with whoever has Dracula's Power of Dominance, which was what gave him dominion over other demons, such as the events of the Sorrow games.

None of that matters though, as the original canon was killed off with the reboot, even if it's an incredibly poor replacement in terms of games and potential lore, considering Dracula isn't even a fucking villain for most of it.

I'll try and be a Castlevania lore philosopher for a moment; I believe in the original canon, it was all but assured Dracula would return 100 years after his last death if he was not reawakened earlier, and anytime he would be, a human sacrifice would be needed. All of that is fine, but IGA kind of locked himself into a hole when he basically had to work between the years 1476 and 1999 for Dracula to be around. He was more screwed because he inferred a sure beginning and end, and while he had a few areas he could do something with - 1897 and 1999 in particular - he pinned the baddie down too much. He also considered on making a threat for the gaps of Dracula, primarily between the years of 1094 and 1476, but by and large he doomed himself to a small timetable of actual Dracula battles. He would have been left between events pre-Dracula, the few missing events to justify a fight with Dracula, and then dealing with whoever has Dracula's Power of Dominance, which was what gave him dominion over other demons.

And that's one of the things that disappointed me. Furthermore, I thought at one time that the Sorrow series was the "reboot" that was always intended/necessary for the series, under IGA's reign. They finally got rid of Drac for good, new shining star and eventual fan favorite Soma Cruz didn't become the new Dark Lord and the second game set the stage for the notion that a new Dark Lord could always arise even though Soma turned down the offer. And hey, we still had Arikado, Yoko and Julius around, for the sake of insuring that the series' roots were still very much present. It was all one could ask for the sake of launching a new era of CV.

But instead of continuing on that tangent, we just jumped back around the timeline some more and inserted more Drac fights that continued the "1999 tease" that never ended up happening. Always thought that was such a waste. Which is again, another reason I'm hoping whatever lore they try to make this time won't have the same types of "traps" to worry about.

I'm sure anyone who visited the Castlevania Dungeon Forums noticed, but for those who didn't the "IGAVANIA" poster who shared the original pixel art images on the two forums has a pretty detailed and excellent avatar image of Koji Igarashi mixed with dracula:

I'm sure anyone who visited the Castlevania Dungeon Forums noticed, but for those who didn't the "IGAVANIA" poster who shared the original pixel art images on the two forums has a pretty detailed and excellent avatar image of Koji Igarashi mixed with dracula:

That's so cool. Dracula is a public domain character, right? There's no reason this new game couldn't have a Dracula in it? Not that it needs it, just throwing ideas around. I don't want the new project constrained by legacy.

"Whatever it is, I hope it's in glorious HD on consoles/PC instead of retro and/or on portables. A SotN-like with visuals like [games with good portable versions]...*drools*

????

You know what I mean. I don't want it to be released only on portables, to avoid playing on a tiny screen with cramped hands, and I would prefer HD visuals over a pixellated retro look. I thought that was clear enough...